It was a chimpanzee loved by British in the 1970s when it became the star of the PG tips advertisement.
And now the life story of Choppers, a Western chimpanzee, who played grandmother Ada Lott in the advertisement, is unveiled in a new study.
It was saved from poachers in Sierra Leone at only six weeks old, before it was brought to the UK.
After the leading role in the advertisements, the chimpanzee was provided in Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire for more than 40 years, until it died in 2016.
A team led by scientists from National Museums Scotland (NMS) has now told the story of Choppers 'Like Never Before', thanks to an advanced scientific method called Ostobiographical analysis.
The technology, which entails detailed analysis of bones and tissue, is more often used in archeology to reconstruct the life stories of old human topics such as Richard III, in which it is identified where and how they lived in remarkable details.
It is rarely used on modern test subjects – and this is the first time that technology has been used so extensively to a zoo animal.
NMS researcher Dr. David Cooper, who wrote the study, said: 'Choppers was loved by the public in the United Kingdom for years.
Choppers, a Western chimpanzee, played grandmother Ada Lott in PG Tips -advertisements
After the leading role in the advertisements, the chimpanzee was provided for more than 40 years in Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire
Choppers later in life in Twycross Zoo
'Now the innovative application of Ostobiographical analysis has enabled us to tell her story like never before.
“Her life is proof of the many thousands of chimpanzees who were taken out of the wild and a crucial shift in the priorities of zoos of entertainment and education, preservation, research and well -being.”
In the study, researchers used biogeochemic, pathological and morphometric analytical techniques to paint a rich picture of the most important life events of Choppers.
These include proof of traumatic injury when she was poached out of the wild in his infancy, which influenced her all her life by influencing her movement and to worsen degenerative issues that were related to old age.
Analysis of the teeth of Choppers also indicated geographical and food shifts between the ages of three and four – coinciding with her relocation to the UK.
Choppers played grandmother Ada Lott before retiring about six or seven.
Researchers said her upper jaw was 'considerably elongated' compared to that of a wild chimpanzee, which they said they reflected an early diet of sugarish soft fruit.
They pointed out that in recent years the diets of zoo principles have shifted to harder, less sugar -like vegetables, which they said to lead to significant improvements in health and behavior.
After her death, Twycross Zoo donated the skeleton of Choppers to NMS, where it became part of an internationally significant natural science collection of more than 10 million copies.
The study, published in the magazine Scientific Reports, also concerned researchers from the University of Exeter, the University of Reading, Twycross Zoo and the University of Edinburgh.
The research is part of the animal food project funded by Wellcare and comes when the NMS is preparing to welcome the return of the largest exhibition of Primate Biology, monkeys: our Primate Family, which will be opened on 28 June.
